Thursday, June 24, 2010

[As is usually the case with great works of infrastructure, the story of the building of the Humber Bridge is nearly as epic as the span itself... While plans for the structure were first drawn up in the 1930s - and then revised in 1955 - it wasn't approved until 1959 with the passage of the Humber Bridge Act (which had been promoted by the Kingston Upon Hull Corporation). It was the 1966 Hull North by-election, though, which finally cleared the way for the actual building to begin; the seat - vacated by the death of Labour MP Henry Solomons - was held by the government of Harold Wilson largely due to the promise of its eventual construction. Having retained the seat, Wilson then prevailed upon his Minister of TransportBarbara Castle to secure the funding. That took until July 1972, when work finally began; then, of course, there were the usual plethora of tea breaks... It took so long to build the bridge, in fact, that Christopher Rowe had time to write a song about it, which he fittingly entitled The Humber Bridge.]

1340 - At the outset of the Hundred Years' War most of the French fleet was destroyed by the English - commanded in person by King Edward III - at the Battle of Sluys, during which the French Admiral Hugues Quiéret was also slain.

1717 - The Grand Lodge of England - the first Grand Lodge (now the United Grand Lodge of England) in the tradition of Freemasonry - was founded at the Goose and Gridiron Ale House, in London's St Paul’s Churchyard; Anthony Sayer was elected to serve as the first Grand Master.

1902 - King Edward VII developed appendicitis, two days before his coronation; Sir Frederick Treves (with the assistance of Joseph Lister, 1st Baron Lister) performed a then-new life-saving operation, and the coronation went ahead a little more than six weeks later, making all those coronation souvenirs with the old date on them highly collectible.

1981 - The Humber Bridge - connecting Hessle in Yorkshire and Barton-upon-Humber in Lincolnshire over the Humber estuary near Kingston upon Hull - was opened to vehicle traffic, although it wouldn't be officially opened by HM The Queen until July 17th; upon its opening it would be the world's longest single-span suspension bridge for 17 years, until it was bested the Great Belt Bridge in Denmark. Currently the world's fifth-largest such bridge, it serves 120,000 vehicles weekly, who pay up to £2.70 in tolls each way.*

I was labouring through the previous post when in the immense mental jumble of mostly nouns and dates came a single thought, like a piercing ray of light... I bet the Moscow Victory Parade is on YouTube. And whattaya know? It IS on YouTube. I so love it when that happens. In fact, I even have a name for it. I call it a 'Research Epiphany'.

This particular epiphany came when I read that the Moscow Victory Parade was the first event in Russian history to be filmed in colour. Let's face it - that's something I gotta see; after growing up with an essentially English view of World War II, I find it exhilarating to experience seemingly familiar events from an unfamiliar perspective. In fact, sharing that sensation is one of the chief raisons d'etre for this blog.*share on: facebook

[For years this lovely bit of water-coloured animation was the sign-off at the end of the programming day on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Canada's national broadcaster. This version was always a favourite of mine, as I find it very stirring, so I thought I'd share it with you on the song's 129th anniversary.]

1535 - The Anabaptist state of Münster was conquered and disbanded following the Münster Rebellion; an attempt by Bernhard Knipperdolling to establish a theocracy there was met with harsh reprisals, as many of the radicals were later tortured and executed in the town square.

1949 - The first television Western aired on NBC; Hopalong Cassidy starred William Boyd, who was uniquely qualified for the role - he'd played the character 66 times since 1935 in an enormously popular series of films.

My Personality Type

What Kind Of Liberal Am I?

My Liberal Identity:

You are a Social Justice Crusader, also known as a rights activist. You believe in equality, fairness, and preventing neo-Confederate conservative troglodytes from rolling back fifty years of civil rights gains.